Community

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT COMMUNITY - PAGE 5

I AM DISGUSTED with the Republicans causing the government shutdown, then blaming the president. They have been blocking, or trying to block, everything the president is trying to do to benefit the American people. They should definitely get rid of John Boehner. He thinks he is in charge! Barbara Ziccardi Philadelphia What an embarrassing situation our government shutting down is. We are a sore eye to other countries. We were once a proud country; now we can hang our heads in shame.

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu waded Monday into one of Israel's deepest political morasses, urging lawmakers to find a "just" replacement for a law that has exempted tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews from compulsory military service. The Israeli leader appeared before a parliamentary committee charged with crafting a new draft law after the current system was deemed illegal by the country's Supreme Court. With a July 31 deadline looming, the committee must find a compromise palatable to both to secular and modern Orthodox religious parties, whose followers serve in the military, and to ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who say their loyalists are serving the state by serving God. Netanyahu told the panel's first meeting that a more equitable sharing of the country's defense burden must be implemented gradually, and without pitting any one sector against another.

Catch Joel McHale while you can. The hardest-working funnyman in show business is taking advantage of a rare lull in his schedule to bring his stand-up act to the Music Box at the Borgata for two shows (7 and 10 p.m.) on Sept. 13. Soon production will begin on the sixth season of Community , which is moving from NBC to Yahoo Screen this year. The Soup , the weekly show he has hosted for 10 years on E!, will be back in full swing. And he's increasingly active in movies like Blended and Deliver Us From Evil . "I'm one of those people who can't relax very well," says McHale, 42, on the phone from his home in Los Angeles.

TIME AND TIME again over the past 37 years, members of Philadelphia's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have rallied around Giovanni's Room, the country's oldest LGBT bookstore, founded in the city. But Ed Hermance, 73, who's owned the shop since 1976, said with the advent of online retailers like Amazon.com, the grass roots just aren't enough to keep the specialty bookstore - one of only a handful of dedicated LGBT stores remaining in the country - afloat anymore.

For local artist James Burns, creating a mural depicting the emotions surrounding suicide hits close to home. "Suicide is not just about ending one person's suffering," Burns said. "What people don't realize is that it starts a whole chain reaction of sorrow for those who are left behind. " Burns, 37, is head artist on the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's latest project, "Finding the Light Within," at 119 S. 31st St. The painter was denied the opportunity to know his grandfather because of his untimely death, and while working on the two-year project, he lost friends from graduate school and high school months apart.

For local artist James Burns, creating a mural depicting the emotions surrounding suicide hits close to home. "Suicide is not just about ending one person's suffering," Burns said. "What people don't realize is that it starts a whole chain reaction of sorrow for those who are left behind. " Burns, 37, is head artist on the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program's latest project, "Finding the Light Within," at 119 S. 31st St. The painter was denied the opportunity to know his grandfather because of his untimely death, and while working on the two-year project, he lost friends from graduate school and high school months apart.

NEARLY ALL the Miami Marlins rushed over to the dugout railing and playfully pretended to listen when Joey Cora sat down to speak about filling in for suspended manager Ozzie Guillen. Shortly after Guillen addressed the team in the clubhouse Wednesday and apologized for saying he admired Fidel Castro, it was business as usual for the players. To a man, they had his back. "It's really a hard time for him and his family," closer Heath Bell said before the Marlins lost to the Phillies, 7-2. "We felt bad for him. You have to understand that occasionally guys make mistakes.

Edwige Danticat, 43, whose collection of essays, Create Dangerously, is the 2012 choice for One Book, One Philadelphia, is a literary lioness. Her novel, Breath, Eyes, Memory, an evocation of Haitian-immigrant experience, was selected for Oprah's Book Club in 1998. A decade later, the MacArthur Foundation graced her with a "genius" grant. Now in its 10th year, One Book, One Philadelphia is a project of the Mayor's Office and the Free Library of Philadelphia to promote literacy and community-building by encouraging the public to read and discuss the featured selection.

BETHLEHEM - One city's loss is another city's gain. And I'm not just talking about what Oakland Raiders fans lost when free-agent cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha signed on Friday with the Eagles. I'm talking about the city of Oakland and its surrounding communities. Don't get me wrong, because I know that many athletes walk their talk about sharing their good fortunes and giving back to the community. I would never belittle anything that anyone does to help his/her fellow person because anything is great and no amount is too small, but some people have a greater call for philanthropy.

Nic Esposito is at once a romantic and a realist, and both inform his passions: farming, telling stories, and advocating for fresh, local food for all. Now, with Kensington Homestead , his second book and first attempt at nonfiction, Esposito, 32, is emerging as a literary voice for the wildly vibrant farm community in Philadelphia. His 14-essay collection chronicles the joys and frustrations of growing crops in uber-urban East Kensington, where the forces of gentrification press relentlessly through the swirl of entrenched poverty.